Bosstones’ Cranking & Skanking Fest set for Worcester Palladium

By Jason Greenough, Correspondent

Wednesday

Aug 15, 2018 at 8:00 AM

WORCESTER — Even after 30 years in a punk scene that has brought them immense success and a status as legends both locally and abroad, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones still feel an exciting energy when they make new music — and later this month, they’re bringing that energy, and the new music, to Worcester.

On Aug. 25, Dicky Barrett and his gang of plaid-clad ska punk titans bring the inaugural Cranking & Skanking Fest to the grounds of the Worcester Palladium, accompanied by a cast of some of their closest friends. With a handful of new songs to sing off of their 10th studio effort, "While We’re At It," Barrett is excited to further cement the band’s part of musical history in Worcester.

“We wanted to do this show in New England, and we wanted to do it in a good, solid, working-class New England town,” said Barrett. “But Portland, Maine, said no,” he jokingly added with a chuckle. “It just seemed like a good idea, because we love Worcester, and we’ve always had great shows in the city.”

While Barrett and company admittedly needed some guidance on which local breweries and food vendors to invite to the party (Wachusett, Berkshire and Citizen Cider in Vermont are only a few that will be in attendance) it was fairly easy to curate a killer lineup of musical acts, consisting of a cavalcade of some of the band’s best friends in the scene, with local flavors Michael Kane and the Morning Afters, Big D and the Kids Table and their side project, Doped Up Dollies, joining Jamaican ska group Toots and the Maytals, the Bouncing Souls, Fishbone, the Pietasters and the Planet Smashers, among others, to see that the maiden voyage goes off without a hitch.

Throughout the course of their career, the Bosstones have made a lot of friends. They’ve always maintained the ability to treat the bands they’ve played and toured with well, and those friendships forged while blazing the trail as ska-core vanguards made it easy for the show’s lineup to come together.

“If you love music and these bands the way we do, and you appreciate the better of what those bands are doing, when you say ‘Hey, this is what we’re doing in Worcester in the summer,’ a lot of those bands will say, ‘Of course we’d love to do this with you guys,’ and these bands are the folks that were available to do this with us,” Barrett said.

While he is hopeful that the day goes well, Barrett is a little nervous about how the first Cranking and Skanking Fest will be received. But don’t worry. He’s got all the technicalities taken care of to work in his (and his band’s) favor.

“We’re not sure if it will play out like an actual festival, so we call it a ‘fest,’ ” he said. “So afterwards, just in case people say, ‘Your festival (stinks),’ then we can go ahead and say, ‘Well, you don’t even know what you’re talking about because it’s not a ‘festival.’ It’s a ‘fest.’ That’s where we’ll get ‘em. Sure, it might be a horrible festival, but it could be a great fest.”

Before the "fest" became public knowledge, in the midst of a busy 2017, the Bosstones found the time to write and record a new album. While it seems like business as usual for a band that’s done this nine times before, Barrett says that, on the contrary, he and his bandmates are not immune to the giddiness that comes with creating a new slate of tracks, even after all these years.

“Did we have that old feeling of excitement and energy? Absolutely,” said Barrett. “We had things we wanted to say, songs we wanted to sing, and music we wanted to play, so whenever that happens, it’s exciting. Whether it’s writing the songs together or working with (producer) Ted Hutt in the studio again, we got that feeling that we got when we were putting out ‘Devil’s Night Out’ all those years ago. It’s still exciting that we get to create something.”

For a band that has accomplished as much as “the plaid boys of Boston” have, the Bosstones certainly aren’t letting their past dictate how they approach their future as a band, but rather they still come up with new ideas, like the Cranking & Skanking Fest, to keep their punk spirit fresh and alive for their loyal following of fans.

“We’re a band that has a history and a past that we are definitely very proud of,” said Barrett. “As we traveled the country in 2017, celebrating the 20th anniversary of ‘Let’s Face It,’ while it was extremely fun and enjoyable, we were also in the process of writing and recording the new album, and we’re proud of that too, because as proud as we are of our past, we’re also really excited for our future. Even just the fact that we’re able to still have a future in music today is huge and not something that we take lightly.”

Doors open for the Aug. 25 fest at 2 p.m. Tickets for the all-ages show are $38.20-$55. For more information, visit www.thepalladium.net.